Ancient History
by tvdhod
Summary: Charlie Pugliese never came back to Chicago in season 1. Erin and Jay are on the rocks after he packs up his stuff. An old 'friend' of Erin's comes back to town that has Voight and Halstead both suspicious of his motives.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: In this story Charlie didn't come back to Chicago in the first season and he never had a kid with Annie. (Also I don't own any of the characters of Chicago P.D.)**_

"I think that's the last of it," he heard her voice.

Erin and Jay had just finished the paperwork after arresting Trent's killer and they were about to head home. She had been trying to avoid him all day and he could tell, Voight could tell, _everyone_ could tell. Usually they would finish up at the station and then go home together, but that was before. Neither one of them knew what to do now.

He tried to meet her eyes, "Let me walk you out," he offered.

She just nodded and grabbed her coat. They walked down the stairs and when they reached the bottom they were met by Platt.

"Hey Erin," she started, "there's a man here to see you, kinda hot, smells like cigarettes, said his name was Charlie."

Jay saw her entire body tense but she seemed to recover quickly.

"Where is he?"

"Waiting by the door."

Erin mumbled a quick thanks and walked over to the door, Jay trailing behind.

When they opened the door to the street Jay saw a man, presumably Charlie, push himself from the wall and stomp out a cigarette.

"Erin," the man spoke, "it's been a long time."

"What brings you here Charlie?" Jay could tell that she was trying not to say the wrong thing and offended the man. He could also see that she was uncomfortable and he wasn't sure weather or not she was even aware of his presence anymore.

"I heard you've got something of mine." The statement sounded like it was laced with an unspoken question.

"You heard wrong," Erin deadpanned.

"Are you sure about that?" He asked.

"Yeah," Erin sighed, "so why don't you just head home Charlie, no need to cause trouble over ancient history."

Jay knew that she was trying to keep the conversation civil, what he didn't know was why.

Charlie's eyes seemed to get slightly darker and his voice came out hard, "Chicago _is_ my home, or did you forget?" The man took a step forward and Erin leaned away a bit but kept her feet planted. "And besides," his voice came out lighter this time, like nothing had just happened, "if it's ancient history like you said, there's no need for any trouble. Let's just let the past be the past."

Erin looked down and nodded, "Yeah, okay sure Charlie."

"Good, we're good. You have a good night Erin," he kissed her cheek and she didn't seem to be surprised, "you too officer," he nodded behind her to Jay. Charlie winked at Erin and started walking down the street away from the two.

Erin had seemed to just start to remember her partner was there and looked extremely uncomfortable. Jay was about to ask her what the hell just happened but he was cut off by Charlie's voice calling with his back towards them "I'll see you around girl." He turned the corner and Erin let out a breath, then turned around to Jay.

"What was that all about?" He asked trying to sound casual. He was pretty sure he was failing. Hard.

"Just an old friend," she said vaguely.

"That didn't seem very friendly to me," he pushed.

"I just haven't seen him in a while, I was caught off guard."

He wanted to push the subject further but he could tell that was all the information he was going to get out of her for now.

"Right, well anyways, do you want me to take you home?" He offered, hoping she would take him up on it. He didn't really feel ready to leave her for the night. He knew it was his decision for them to be apart, but he didn't exactly expect it to be this hard.

"That's okay, I think I could use the time to clear my head. Been a long day, you know?" She responded, not meeting his eyes.

He felt disappointed with the answer, but he wasn't going to push it. "Okay, goodnight Erin."

"Night," she gave him a small smile that didn't exactly reach her eyes and started to walk away from the station.


	2. Chapter 2

Erin decided to walk to her apartment to give herself some time to clear her head. She had her hands stuffed in her pockets and was looking up towards the sky. How did this all happen? First there was the stuff with Bunny and her not-so-father father, she and Jay are barely speaking to each other, and now he's back. Charlie was back. A man, she truly believed, she would never see again. Now that he was here, in Chicago, standing in front of her she had no idea what she was supposed to be feeling. Part of her, a big part of her, was terrified to see him again. Another part was curious. And then there was a small part of her that held a relief she was trying desperately trying to ignore. Seeing him brought up memories, some good some bad, all unforgettable. Erin walked down the hallway and unlocked her door, wishing her past would just stay buried for once.

She threw her purse and coat on a chair and went to grab the bottle of vodka from her counter, hoping a drink would calm the nerves. She poured herself a glass and then brought it with the bottle over to the couch and plopped down.

She looked up at the ceiling worried about tomorrow. Worried that Jay will question her again, worried that she will or won't see Charlie again, worried that Voight will find out about him being back, and worried what will happen if he does.

Voight never liked Charlie. Always thought he was nothing but trouble, and maybe he was right about that. But there was just something about him that sparked something in Erin. He was trouble, she knew that. But back then she was trouble too. And when they were together, he took care of her. They had this fire about them, and for that she was loyal to him. She trusted him. Most of all, she loved him. She continued to love him until the day Voight ran him out of Chicago, and there was the smallest part of her that was unsure if that love ever completely faded.

She thought back to the night he left. She had cried, begged, and even screamed at Voight pleading for him not to hurt Charlie. She thought she loved him, and she'd be dammned if she let anything happen to him because of her. Voight wanted him dead and Erin tried everything she could to save his life. He had finally agreed to let Charlie live, on one condition. He had to stay out of Chicago, permanently.

Erin was heartbroken. She felt like she was struggling everyday without him. She fell back on her bad habits to distract herself. Everything just seemed so much harder and duller with him gone.

Eventually she moved in with the Voights, cleaned up her act, and pushed the feelings down. She never told him how bad she got. Still hasn't to this day. She didn't want him to be disappointed in her. She hated disappointing Voight. He always believed in her, believed she could be this strong and good person. Sometimes she felt like he put her on a pedestal she could never reach. She always had this feeling like she dangling off the edge by one hand and the only thing that could follow was a long painful fall.

She was praying he wouldn't find out about Charlie being back. She wasn't even sure how she felt about the situation yet. She needed time to figure out what to do. She wasn't ready to deal with a smackdown between the two of them.

Just thinking of the long day ahead of her made her feel drained. She took another drink, hoping it would silence her thoughts, and headed for her bed.

She woke up to the sharp ringing of her alarm. Her eyes opened and she wished to god that she could stay in her bed, hidden from the world for the day. She felt a pounding in her head and she wasn't sure if it was from the drinks or the stress. She brushed it off reasoning that she's had worse. She picked up her phone and looked at the time. She only had 15 minutes until she had to be at work. She must have slept though her alarm for a while.

Dragging herself out of bed she went to look in the mirror. She looked a little worse for wear. Yesterdays makeup was still on and her hair was a mess, most likely from tossing and turning. Overall she looked tired. Felt it too.

She brushed her teeth and threw on some new clothes, grabbed her stuff and headed out the door.

When she arrived at the station she was greeted by Platt at the front desk.

"Morning Erin" she called out.

Erin gave a small smile and nod, trying to make it upstairs quickly.

She was stopped by Platt's voice asking her if she got everything taken care of with the man that came in yesterday.

Erin thought back to seeing Charlie right outside the station. "Yeah, I think so. Thank you." she answered heading up the stairs.

Everyone was there already there sitting at their desks.

"Someone's running a bit late," Atwater spoke.

"I'm a minute early," She argued back.

"Which is fourteen minutes late for you," he retorted.

"I guess I hit snooze one too many times," she tried to respond casually.

She turned towards Jay and was met with his concerned and questioning eyes on her. She looked away and settled into her desk.

As soon as she was seated Voight came out of his office saying they had a case. He laid out the details and gave everyone their tasks.

"Halstead," Voight stopped him before they walked out, "let me borrow Lindsay for a minute before you guys leave."

Jay nodded looking towards Erin. She avoided his gaze and followed Voight into his office. Her first thought was he knows. How did he already know? That was fast.

"Erin," he said meeting her eyes, "is everything okay?"

She felt like she was going to be sick. "Yeah, why? What's up?"

"Listen don't take this the wrong way, but you look exhausted. I just wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong." He looked at her waiting for a response.

She felt relief wash over her realizing he had no idea what was going on. "I'm okay, really. I had a bad headache last night, so I didn't sleep the best but I'm good. Don't worry."

"Just checking kid," he said putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I know, and thank you," she smiled at him and then turned towards the door.

"Be careful," he called after her.

"Always," she shot over her shoulder and walked back out into the room with Jay.

"Ready?" He asked.

She nodded, "Let's go".

 _ **A/N**_

 _ **Thanks for reading, I hope you're enjoying the story so far. I'll hopefully try to make the next chapter a bit longer than these two.**_


	3. Chapter 3

The moment she started the car he began to question her.

"Okay listen, I know it's not exactly my place right now, but what is going on with you?"

Erin keeps her eyes straight ahead on the road and grips the steering wheel a little bit tighter than necessary.

"What do you mean what's going on with me?" She decides playing dumb would be her best defense at the moment.

The only flaw in her plan was that Jay knows her, and he knows she is anything but dumb.

"Come on Erin, that guy shows up last night and you act like you've seen a ghost, then you show up late looking like you haven't slept at all. Just tell me what's going on, maybe I can help." He finishes and she finally glances over at the passenger side to find his stare boring into her.

"I wasn't late." She quips and turns her eyes back towards the road, not offering up anymore of a response.

He lets out a bitter sounding laugh. "That's all you want to talk about? I tell you I want to help you and all you can say is that you weren't late for work."

She's starting to panic that he's digging too deep and decides that if playing dumb isn't going to work, she's just going to have to push him away.

"So you're just not going to say anything?" She's faintly aware of Jay asking.

 _Okay Erin, come on you can do this. Now's you're chance._ She tries to give herself a lame excuse of a mental pep talk.

Taking a deep breath to prepare herself, she starts, "What do you want from me Jay? Did you even stop to think that maybe it's you? Maybe you're 'what's going on'," she pauses and he looks taken back by her words, "Listen, you told me you needed some space and I understood that, I _respected_ that. And you know, it really hurt at first, but now I'm just starting to realize that maybe I wanted the same thing and I just hadn't recognized it." She looks to her right and sees the hurt and guilt written all over his face. It makes her feel sick, especially knowing that she's the cause. But she reminds herself that she has to do this. "So yeah," she looks back towards the road, "maybe that's 'what's going on',".

They drove in silence for the rest of the car ride.

 ** _AN: Sorry this chapter was sooo short, I just wanted to get it uploaded. I'm going to try and hopefully put up another longer (much better) chapter within the next few days to make up for it. Thanks for reading!_**


	4. Chapter 4

Loyalty is usually a word used to describe a good and admirable trait. Honest, brave, loyal. But Erin knew that isn't always the case.

She wasn't sure if what she felt for Charlie was ever love, but what she did know was that she was loyal to him.

He took care of her, fed her, sheltered her, and for that she was grateful. Maybe a little too grateful for her own good.

Looking back she was beginning to question if she had just confused that loyalty with love.

She let that loyalty drag her down, and she hadn't even tried to stop it. She hadn't wanted to.

Hank had been trying so hard to save her from Charlie, that he never really noticed she needed saving from herself. He had thought putting distance between the two would solve the problem, and maybe it did. Maybe she was better off with him gone, but sometimes, when she was left alone with her thoughts, she wondered what her life would've been like if he had stayed.

Deep down Jay knew she was right, yet her words still cut deep. He had asked for space because of himself, not because he didn't love her. He still wanted to be with her, he just didn't know how to do that right now due to his own personal problems. The idea that she might not want to be with him was painful to think about.

Erin felt terrible for saying those things to Jay, but she knew she had to do it. If she didn't, he would just keep digging, and who knows what he would find.

The team had finished their work for the day, reached out to all their CIs, and all they could do now was wait for someone to reach back.

It had been a long day and most of the team members were heading home to get some much needed sleep. Jay and Voight were the last people left in the office, but the older of the two didn't seem like he planned on leaving anytime soon. Jay watched as Hank waited at the coffee machine in the break room.

He was conflicted. Part of him felt worried. Erin pushed him away today in the car, hard. She tends to only push when trying to deflect. That's what scared Jay. He felt like she might be in trouble. He knows Erin, and he knows that she isn't one to ask for help. He was just worried she might've got herself in over her head and she'd rather drown than let anyone know she was sinking.

But wasn't he doing the same thing to her?

She even told him as much. He had pushed her away because he didn't want her help. Maybe everything she said was just her being brutally honest with him and he was making a big deal out of nothing.

He just couldn't shake the feeling that this 'Charlie' guy was more important than Erin was letting on.

To say she seemed shocked to see him last night would be an understatement, and then she had been distant all day today. Something just seemed off.

Pulling himself out of his own thoughts, he looked back towards Voight. He wanted to ask his boss if he knew anything useful about Charlie. If there was anyone who could share some insight into Erin's past, it would be Hank Voight.

On the other hand, involving Voight in situations usually escalates them even more, and Jay knew Erin would be absolutely pissed if she found out he went behind her back to find out information about her.

Ignoring those thoughts and against his (probably) better judgement, he got up from his desk and walked into the break room.

"Hey Voight uh," Jay stared slowly, still debating if he was really going to do this, "I uh, I just wanted to run something by you."

Oh man, what was he doing.

"Well," Voight responded, "spit it out Halstead". His face was focused on the coffee mug in front of him, stirring in the single packet of sugar he had just emptied into it.

 _I guess I'm really doing this_ Jay thought to himself.

"Does the name Charlie mean anything to you?" He asks.

"Like the name in general? You're going to have to be a little more specific," he says back, still stirring the coffee.

"What I mean is," _well there's no going back now_ Jay thought, "do you know anything about a Charlie that might know Erin."

This caught his boss's attention.

Voight stopped stirring and looked up at Jay.

"Why are you asking me this?"

Jay was caught off guard by his question, "I just thought maybe you would know because you and Erin, you know-"

Hank cut him off, "No, Halstead, I meant why are you asking about this guy."

"Last night when we were leaving Platt told Erin there was a guy named Charlie here to see her, and when they talked her whole demeanor changed. It was like she had seen a ghost. Then today she just seemed off and I don't know if it's related, but I thought maybe you would know," he explained as briefly as he could.

At this point Jay could tell he had Voight's undivided attention.

"Did you ask her about it?"

"Yeah I mentioned it today in the car."

"And?"

"And she just avoided the question."

Jay heard Voight mumble something along the lines of ' _of course she did_ '.

"I'll take care of it," Voight said.

"I didn't come and ask you so you could 'take care of it', I just wanted to find out if you knew anything about the guy. Erin's a big girl, she can take care of herself, I just wanted to know if she was in some kind of trouble."

"I said I'll take care of it," Voight reiterates, meeting Jay's eyes.

It did't seem like the matter was up for any more discussion, so Jay just nodded and left the room, grabbed his jacket, and headed down the stairs.

Erin was with out a doubt going to be furious.

He'll be lucky if she ever lets him drive the car again.


	5. Chapter 5

Erin's feet had just hit her coffee table the moment she heard a banging at the door. She let out a tired sigh and spent the short walk over trying to figure out who would be here at this time. When she put her eye to the peep hole she saw Voight, she thought he looked a little pissed off, but then again when does he ever _not_ look a little pissed off. She pulled it open.

"Hey, is something wrong?" She asks, worried something may have happened with the team. It seemed a bit late for a social visit.

"I don't know, you tell me." He responded quickly.

Erin's heart spiked for a brief second. With the long day she had, she'd almost managed to get Charlie out of her mind. Now the anxiety she had been trying so hard to avoid was coming back full force. There were two word playing over and over in Erin's mind.

 _He knows._

She only took a tiny second to compose herself. Maybe he was talking about something else.

"Tell you what?" She asks, if for nothing but to buy time. _Might as well make sure we're talking about the same thing before accidentally spilling the beans._

 _"_ You know damn well what," Hank uttered, "why didn't you tell me Charlie Pugliese was back in town?"

Now there was only one word rattling around in Erin's tired mind.

 _Shit_.

She let out another sigh. "Look Hank, he just showed up out of the blue last night and said hi. It was a bit strange sure, but I didn't really think much of it," _liar_ she thought to herself, "I honestly didn't think it was worth mentioning."

Voight wouldn't take his eyes off hers.

"You didn't think it was worth mentioning? Really? This piece of scum who almost ruined your life comes crawling back into town after years and you didn't think it was worth mentioning?"

"Maybe I didn't think your reaction was worth mentioning it." She responded trying to continue playing it off.

"My reaction? Quite frankly I think I'm under reacting. He was supposed to stay out of this city for good, that was the deal."

"That was over a decade ago Hank, you can't always control who leaves and who stays."

"The fact that you're not at all concerned with this just proves he can still get to you. He'll get under you skin Erin, and if you're not careful he's gonna stay there." The look on his face brought her back to when she was sixteen, looking into the eyes of a man who so desperately wanted to save her.

"There's nothing to be careful about okay, I swear. I probably won't even see him ever again, Chicago is a big place. I saw him once last night for the first time in years, and if anything happens again I will come to you. But for now maybe we should just leave the situation alone. A decade is a long time, there's a chance he's changed. Maybe we owe him the benefit of the doubt before we go making threats and buying bus tickets." Erin was trying to convince herself of her words just as much as she was trying to convince him. She wished she could buy herself a bus ticket to straight out of this mess.

"People like him don't change, we don't owe him anything," he sighed and his lecturing mode seemed to subside, "you promise you will come to me if anything else happens?"

Erin wished he'd rip his eyes away from hers for at least a second.

"I promise."

"Okay then," he sighed, "Goodnight Erin."

"Goodnight Hank," she said softly.

He turned to walk down the hallway towards the elevator and Erin shut the door behind him, leaning her back against it as she did.

She tapped the back of her head slightly against the door.

She's always hated lying to him.


End file.
